Anderson, John J.

JOHN J. ANDERSON.

John J. Anderson, a representative of one of the old families of Hackensack, resides at the Anderson homestead, corner of Passaic Avenue and Main Street, where his grandfather, John Anderson, located about the year 1800. The grandfather was of Scotch-Irish descent. He came first to New Bridge, Bergen county, and
after his marriage to Catharine Zabriskie, located in Hackensack, where
he purchased the property now owned by the Oritani Field Club. He was
extensively engaged in mercantile pursuits, and operated a store at the
corner of Passaic and Main Streets for many years, but the business was latterly put into the hands of his sons John C, and David. John died in 1836 at thirty-four years of age, and John, his father, died in 1846. eighty-two years of age. In 1865 Mr. John J. Anderson tore down the old building and erected Anderson Hall, placing in the wall a cornerstone of the
old house, on which was subscribed: "W. C. W., 1711." From this it is
supposed the building was erected by W. C. Waldron in 1711. The store on
the other corner of the street, now owned by the heirs of John
H. T. Banta, was then operated by H. H. T. Banta, and before him by Mr.
Doremus, subsequently Judge Doremus. There were a few other houses at
intervals along the road, now Main Street, then fenced in with rails.

About the year 1858 the Morton House was built by Mrs. Abram Berry, the daughter of John Anderson. Judge Banta married a daughter of Mrs. Berry. John C. Z. Anderson married Harriet Meyers, of English
Neighborhood, and had five children; Garret Meyers, who married Leah
Louis Slope in 1849, and then Mary Galloway in 1854; Catherine C. who
married Lucas J. Van Buskirk in 1848; Jane, who married W. C. Smith in
1852; Maria, who married Leveret H. Sage in 1854; and John J., who was
born in 1830, and married Jane Ann Demarest in 1853. The wife of John J. died in 1883. Their children were Martha, Catharine Z., Pauline and Cornelius H.

Mr. John J. Anderson was one of the prominent merchants of Hackensack until his retirement in 1878. He was Collector, and held other offices in the town of New Barbadoes, and was the first Republican elected to the State Legislature for fifty-four years.